Half Specific/Not Half Obvious
Half Specific/Not Half Obvious was generated through an open-ended exploration of tensions and possibilities existing between studio and gallery, during a studio residency at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne Australia in 2011.
The work stemmed from subtle manipulations of found objects (such as a wooden window blind roll resembling a fluorescent light tube and lengths of steel ball chain) considering how an arbitrary material might forge an uncanny connection to a space within a site-specific exploration. This question unfolded through stages of removal and construction within the adjacent spaces of studio and gallery, exploring layers of history and drawing focus to the nuances of vision, observation and awareness.
A small anteroom was built within the entrance to the studio space, which echoed the depth and light quality of the gallery space opposite.
A gauss gun mechanism was employed to convert potential energy into kinetic energy, releasing several thousand ball bearings over several weeks into the small room through an angled cavity at the base of the room.
Ball bearings were intermittently fired from within the studio in response to the sound of approaching viewers. These were left to accumulate in a slumped area of the floorboards close to the threshold of the studio.
The end wall of the gallery space was removed to reveal a glass window, framing a storage area in the corridor beyond it. In this space, subtly manipulated objects were placed, paralleling elements utilised in the studio construction.
http://artstudiovisit.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/susan-jacobs-gertrude-contemporary.html